after a good sleep i skyped mum and dad which was nice. tthere was a bit of drissle this morning but was still really warm, itcleared up about 10 and the sun came out for a really warm day. after talking to mum and dad i went down to the lobby and had a lovely breakfast, it was a buffet style breakfast with lots of choice and most of it was reallly yummy. after breakfast i went for a walk to the catedral Saint-Gatien. they had amazing stained glass windows there, i didnt stay for too long because after a while the cathedrals all look sort of the same. after the cathedral i went for a walk through all the shops and down a few streets. had some lunch and had a nice relaxing afternoon. Tours ... read more

so today was the last day of our road trip. we were supposed to leave at 7.30 but i slept in (whoops) and we didnt leave till about 7.50. it is about a 5hr drive from stuttgart to lingin where we had to drop the rental back off. on the way we stopped at Koln (Cologne) and had a look at the Chocolate factory museum (we hadn't realised earlier that it was there). it was interesting and smelled yummy. we of course purchased some chocolates. we got a special gift of chocolate false teeth for Auntie Margerth and a chocolate tool set for Uncle Albert. we got to lingin a bit earlier (30mins) than we thought as steve drove fast on auto-bahn. Uncle Albert came to picck us upwhich was really nice, otherwise it would have ... read more

so it was anotheer beautiful morning. we left the hotel at 9am and started our drive to Munich. we started by driving the romantic road trail which takes you through the smaller villages and towns rather than on the auto-bahn. the only downside was that steve couldn't drive 140-200kph and had to stick to a speed limit. we first stopped at wurzburg where we had brunch, walked around the town square and then went to the medievil fortress Marienberg. the fortress had beautifull views and there was the princes gerden there which was nice too. We carried on at 2pm to Weikershein where we walked around a beautiful garden and the perimeter of their palace. we then carried onto Greglingen where we were going to see the alter of mary but we couldn't find it so ... read more

so we left Auntie Margerths and Uncle Alberts today, they drove us to Lingen which was very nice of them. we got there mid morning. we picked up our rental car which is a very flash ford galaxy, the first few minutes were interesting as steve had to get used to driiving on the opposite side of the road (hes the only one thats allowed to drive as hes an old bugga). once we got on the auto-ban (which is amazing) we headed tio Aachen for a few hours. we walked around the city centre and shops. once we had seen the shops we had dinner at a yummy mexican resturant, the cocktails looked yummy and the tequilla-beer tasted yummy (definatly try it). then we headed back onto the road to our ddestination of cologne (Koln). ... read more

so woke up this morning aboard the stenaline. we spent the morning catching the trains to auntie margerths and uncle alberts from hoek de Holland. it dwas real fun in the rain. it was nice when we got there to see a friendly face. we have spent the avo/evening eating, drinking coffee, talking, taking a wee drive to the border for netherlands/germany. we have just come back from Martins. looks like we might be doing a wee bit of sight seeing tomorrow :-)... read more